Pickup Makers Maneuver for Market Share in ’14

From Ford’s lighter aluminum F-150 to General Motors’ stylish smaller pickups to Ram’s light-duty diesel engine, the industry’s dominant truckmakers have all shown their hands. Now what?

Automotive News reported that this year will usher in a new era in the pickup market, with the Detroit 3 following distinctly different paths for their most profitable products. Each will pitch new technologies and ideas to truck buyers who in the past had to consider little more than the color choice for their V-8 pickup.

But as buyers get a wider array of choices, it becomes trickier for manufacturers to plot their market strategies. A high-stakes chess match is under way to protect market share in light of some potentially game-changing entries as pickup makers try to capitalize on resurgent truck demand.

Take GM. For six months it has had the freshest trucks on the market, leading to a leap of roughly $4,000 in the average transaction price for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, according to Edmunds.com. Yet its market share for November through January shrank to 32.7%, from 36.6% a year earlier, as Ford and Ram offered bigger incentives.